1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, and a program, and more particularly, to an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, and a program capable of reducing an image when reducing the image, while reducing a subject in the image as little as possible.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, high-resolution images are being increasingly photographed due to the high capability of digital cameras. On the other hand, as mobile terminals have come into wide use, the opportunity to view images photographed with digital cameras on small-sized screens is ever more increasing. When an image with a high resolution is viewed on a small-sized screen, the entire image may not be viewed on one screen without a change in the size of the image. Therefore, the entire image is generally reduced to match the size of the screen for display. Then, when the entire image is reduced so as to be small, an object as a subject may be reduced. Therefore, it is sometimes difficult to see the details of the image.
For example, a technique for selecting a plurality of cropped regions has been suggested (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-175683). A technique has also been suggested in which a portrait mode used to photograph a person or a scenery mode used to photograph scenery as a subject is manually or automatically selected and a cropped region is detected according to the modes (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-175684).
A technique has also been suggested in which the size and shape of a crop window are selected and cropping is performed using the size and shape of the crop window (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-16792). A technique has also been suggested in which a subject region is detected and cropped by allocating portions with a high value in a belief map (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-218223). A technique has also been suggested in which a subject region is detected and cropped by allocating portions with a high value in a belief map (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-236497).